"Experience" was only half the battle for Muir... The other was being physically capable of going and holding that pace, which as that other poster correctly stated the US women unfortunately aren't
True this!
In Muir's case, experience also taught her not too go too hard to fast. When she was younger, she used to try to win every race from the gun. That's why she didn't medal until last year. (Just look at the Rio Olympics.)
Sofia Ennaoui was distinctly dead last at 400, which she split in 62.36 (3:53.85 pace). She finished 5th in 4:01.43, a season’s best.
As a great runner once said, “You can’t be disappointed with people not being better.”
I have a lot of respect for Muir. She maybe not as talented as the two top Africans but she got on the train and stayed on it no matter how badly it hurt. Jessica Hull maybe has similar talent but she took the slow train to China rather than getting on the bullet train.
"Experience" was only half the battle for Muir... The other was being physically capable of going and holding that pace, which as that other poster correctly stated the US women unfortunately aren't
True this!
In Muir's case, experience also taught her not too go too hard to fast. When she was younger, she used to try to win every race from the gun. That's why she didn't medal until last year. (Just look at the Rio Olympics.)
Muir still races as she did in Rio, she's just stronger now. It's taken her years to get there, but now she knows how to run a 3:55. She still went out in 59 yesterday, which is suicidal for most people, and used to be suicidal for her. It's also why she detonated at Pre, she ran with Kipyegon when she wasn't ready.
Muir still races as she did in Rio, she's just stronger now. It's taken her years to get there, but now she knows how to run a 3:55. She still went out in 59 yesterday, which is suicidal for most people, and used to be suicidal for her. It's also why she detonated at Pre, she ran with Kipyegon when she wasn't ready.
Thanks! That's an interesting take. It sounds plausible. I'll have to take another look at Pre.
Jessica Hull maybe has similar talent but she took the slow train to China rather than getting on the bullet train.
What exactly do you mean when you say Hull "took the slow train to China"? Do you mean Hull could have run with the leaders yesterday if she'd used different tactics? Or do you mean that she could have run with them if she'd trained differently, so she was physically able to keep up with them?
It is just a fact of life that there is stratification at the very top of the women's distance events. Ajee, Keely and Athing are going to run the 800 final 2-3 seconds faster than everyone else. The Ethiopian women are going to run 5k in 10-20 seconds faster than the field. The athletes know this and know that trying to hit a massive PR on beat up legs from prior rounds at WC is going to just result in a blow up. They just want to run the best time they can get to try to keep building. A solid time at WCs means more invites and $ for track meets. Getting into top meets means more opportunities to chase top athletes and get faster. Blowing up at WCs means second tier events in the US and Europe.
I don't blame the chase pack for their tactics in this race. They weren't good enough to run with the leaders. I blame them instead for thinking that it is still the 2010ss, when jog and kick worked at the international stage. Laura Muir took a lot of criticism in her early days for not being "tactical," but truth is she was doing what she needed to do -- learn how to run with the big fish. Now the "bad tactical runner" has a Olympic silver and World bronze, while all the alleged tactical specialists have bupkus.
Get better, field. Get better.
Correct 100 times on that bolded part. She died a hard death so many times in major championships up to Doha, but it made her into one of the big dogs for Tokyo and Oregon, and for championships to come. If you can hack it in a breakaway of three with three medals available, you go for it. She went for it and was rewarded.
Sinclaire’s 6th place was at best the expected outcome going into the race. 1-3 would have been blackpage worthy. 4-5 would have been MF worthy. 6th is just eh. Anything worse would have been disappointing. I understand from a year ago’s perspective 6th was good but not given her expectations as of late.
So you're saying the difference between 4:01.43 & 4:01.63 is the difference between MF Sinclaire and eh? I agree that being top-5 would have been big for her. She wasn't beating Hailu, but that losing to Ennaoui does feel like a slight strike.
Still, 6th is good. She should feel happy about it. Top American, and beat some serious women out there in Hull, Nanyondo, and Meshesha. She's definitely not in the medal conversation until she improves, but you gotta allow for a little more margin of error than 1/5 of a second in a fast race to go from MF to indifferent. She's still absolutely the one I'm most excited about going forward.